A new temporary migrant labour force has emerged in Britain but the overwhelming majority say they intend to go home within two years, according to official immigration figures published yesterday.

Indeed, the Home Office say that in terms of long-term immigration - those who intend to stay somewhere for more than four years - Britain is suffering from an annual net loss.

The latest international migration figures to and from Britain by length of stay show that net migration to the country has risen sharply in recent years and reached 222,600 more migrants coming in than leaving in 2004.

But a big majority - 193,000 - say they want to leave within two years and a further 54,000 say they will go within three to four years. The proportion of all migrants saying they intend to stay less than two years has risen from 36% in 1995 to 50% in 2004.

The numbers of British citizens leaving the country has risen since 1997 to reach a record 235,000 in 2004. This net outflow of long-term residents from Britain has been increasing since 1999 and reached record levels as a more affluent age group buy retirement homes abroad.

This long-term trend underlines the changing nature of migration to Britain. That it is the creation of a new, temporary, east European "guest-labour" workforce rather than a repeat of the mass migrations from the Asian sub-continent and Africa seen in the 1960s and 1970s.

Eastern Europe

The latest figures also show that by June this year, a total of 447,000 eastern Europeans had registered to work in Britain since May 2004 when Poland and seven other mainly former communist states joined the European Union. Most have come from Poland - 264,000 - and more than 82% are young, aged 18 to 34, with no dependents.

The 447,000 figure is far below the claims that 1 million Poles are now living in Britain or that the numbers coming have risen to 600,000 a year. Some commentators pointed to a downward trend in the numbers, 57,000 who registered between April and June last year down to 52,195 this year.

The workers' registration scheme figures published yesterday show that 49% were in temporary jobs, suggesting that they were likely to go back.

The figures show that 95,000 have been working in factories - followed by chicken pluckers, box packers and fruit and vegetable pickers. Some 6,500 registered as bus and lorry drivers, 12,700 as careworkers, 1,500 teachers and classroom assistants, 600 dentists and 2,000 as doctors and nurses.

Danny Sriskandarajah, of the Institute of Public Policy Research, said: "Eastern European arrivals continue to be young, single people wanting to work temporarily in the UK. Many work in places or sectors that have trouble attracting local people. There were fewer applications this last quarter than there were this time last year.

"Over time, as their populations age and economies improve, there will be fewer and fewer Poles and Lithuanians heading our way."

He said the challenge for the government was to respond more quickly to these migration flows so that local authorities had the appropriate resources to support the people living in their area.

Migrants from outside Europe

A total of 137,000 people from outside of the EU came to Britain on work permits. This was an increase of 10% but the numbers are now overshadowed by the arrival of new workers from within the EU.

A further 284,00 non-Europeans came to Britain in 2005 as students, a slight fall on the previous year. The largest group - 100,000 - came from North and South America. There was a 29% increase in the number of people settling in the UK to 179,210.

The rise mainly involved the wives and children of those who had come to Britain on work permits or who had been allowed to stay as a result of a special clearance exercise of the backlog in applications for asylum.

Asylum

Applications have continued to fall and the latest annual figures show a 24% drop in 2005 to 25,710 with the largest numbers coming from Iran and Somalia. This is the lowest number of new asylum applications since 1993 and the figures show applications continuing to fall, with only 2,120 lodged in June this year.

An estimated 31% of those who applied in 2005 were given permission to stay, including 8% who were given full refugee status on initial decision. A total of 12% of applicants managed to overturn an initial refusal of their asylum application on appeal.

Removals of failed asylum seekers continued to rise last year to 15,685 applicants and their families, and are now running at 1,665 a month in 2006 - ahead of the prime minister's tipping point target that they should outstrip unfounded new applications.

A total of 1,950 people were detained under immigration laws on December 31 2005, mostly awaiting deportation.

The official asylum figures show that 30 were children under 18, including ten who were detained for between one and four months as part of a family group.

A total of 29,210 people were detained for immigration purposes during 2005 with 59% deported from the country.

Immigration enforcement

The total number of people removed from Britain in 2005 for both immigration and asylum reasons actually fell by 5% to 58,215. In terms of action against companies that employ illegal migrants there were only 23 prosecutions and 13 convictions in 2005.